Cyberwar heats up in the Middle East

Maria Korolov |
April 6, 2015

Two new malware campaigns have been spotted in the Middle East, according to reports released this week, one targeting energy companies and the other going after political targets in Israel and Lebanon.

One possible indication that the Trojan.Laziok is not politically motivated is that the malware — which is also known as the Kraken Remote Access Trojan — has been spotted stealing Bitcoin wallets.

"It is unknown who is actually behind the attacks using Kraken," said Jeremy Scott, senior research analyst at Omaha-based security firm Solutionary, Inc. "However... Kraken is far from an 'espionage' malware unless the attackers behind it are more sophisticated than researchers are aware of."